NewsWrap
for the week ending October 25, 2003
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #813, distributed 10-27-03)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex
Wockner, and Greg Gordon]
Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon
Chicago's gay community is confronting a health crisis, as 3 men have died
of meningococcal disease in the last 2 weeks. Three others are believed to
have the bacterial infection, with one of them in critical condition at last
report. While 15 to 50 cases appear in the city's general population each year,
these constitute an unusual cluster, with the victims believed to have been in
North Side gay social venues in the first half of October. Meningococcal
disease can be spread not just through sexual contact, but also through kissing,
coughs and sneezes, or sharing eating and drinking utensils, pipes and
cigarettes, or drug paraphernalia.
The Chicago Department of Public Health responded using the protocol it's
developed for bioterrorism. It started a free vaccination program this week at
several gay sites, initially ordering 7,500 doses at $50 per shot. In the
first 6 days more than 12,000 men were inoculated.
Meningococcal disease can be treated with antibiotics but they must be
administered promptly when symptoms appear. Those symptoms -- a sudden fever and
severe headache, often with a stiff neck and a rash -- usually appear 4 to 10
days after exposure. If you were partying in Chicago this month and experience
such symptoms, don't assume it's the flu -- see a physician. Meningococcal
disease can result in hearing loss, brain damage or death.
Of course AIDS remains the biggest gay health challenge, with new HIV
infections increasing among gay men almost everywhere in the world. But this week
San Francisco's Department of Public Health announced a new initiative to
fight another growing problem, methamphetamine addiction, earmarking $425,000 for
programs serving lesbigays and transgenders, particularly youth.
Meanwhile, the latest U.S. city to adopt civil rights protections for
lesbigays and transgenders is Lake Oswego, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. The City
Council this week approved a bill introduced by openly gay Councilmember Karl
Rohde, to prohibit discrimination in housing, employment and public
accommodations, effective in January. Those who feel they've experienced discrimination
can file complaints with the state Bureau of Labor, and can also file civil
lawsuits.
But the headline issue in the U.S. remains legal recognition of same-gender
relationships.
In Wisconsin -- which was the first U.S. state to prohibit sexual orientation
discrimination -- 70% of the state Assembly this week voted in favor of a
so-called "Defense of Marriage" bill, which would define marriage exclusively as
between a man and a woman. Wisconsin's current law refers to "husband and
wife" without specifying gender. The bill will next be taken up by the state
Senate.
Also this week, Pennsylvania's state Supreme Court agreed to take up a
legal challenge to Philadelphia's recognition of gay and lesbian "life
partnerships," which includes spousal benefits for city employees' partners. Opponents
claim that only the state can define legal relationships, and Pennsylvania has
no legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples.
At the federal level, there was a foretaste of what promises to be some
remarkably homophobic campaigning for 2004 elections, as Republican
Congressmember from Tennessee and Senate hopeful Zach Wamp called for enactment of an
amendment to the U.S. Constitution to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples.
Wamp, who identifies himself as a born-again Christian cited Old Testament
values as the basis for his views, called homosexuality "not just a sin ... but an
aberration," "unnatural," and "a sickness". The Federal Marriage Amendment
has so far gathered almost 100 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.
And the anti-gay religious right group the Family Research Council this
week claimed the first elected official to sign its pledge, which goes far beyond
the Marriage Amendment to commit to preventing all legal benefits and
privileges for civil unions, domestic partnerships and similar relationships. It's
not too surprising that Republican Colorado state Representative David
Schultheis represents Colorado Springs, renowned as the headquarters of anti-gay media
giant Focus on the Family and as the birthplace of Amendment 2, a statewide
initiative to prohibit local lesbigay civil rights ordinances that was
ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
On the flip side of the electoral coin, Switzerland has a record 16 openly
gay and lesbian candidates running for Parliament, along with one openly gay
incumbent.
Britain's Conservative Party this week named its second openly gay
candidate for Parliament. Nicholas Boles will be running to represent Hove, along
with Iain Dale's bid in North Norfolk.
And in Canada, Ontario's first openly gay Member of the Provincial
Parliament has become its first openly gay Cabinet member, as the Liberal Party's
George Smitherman was sworn in this week as the provincial Minister of Health.
Back on the couples front, an Israeli court has rejected a gay man's bid to
inherit from the deceased partner he spent his life with, the "Yediot
Aharonot" newspaper reported this week. The partner had died at age 70 without
leaving a will. Had he lived with a woman, even if they were not married, she
could have inherited under Israeli law. But the court refused to extend that to a
male partner, even though there was no other designated heir.
Legal recognition of same-gender couples was part of the election program
of Poland's ruling party SLD, the Democratic Left Alliance. But while the
party caucus will be reviewing a just-completed draft bill, its Prime Minister
Leszek Miller hedged, saying, "The question is whether to launch an initiative
that has a rather slim chance ... of passing through parliament." The proposal
reportedly would allow gay and lesbian couples joint property and inheritance
rights, but not the ability to adopt children.
Inevitably the idea is drawing howls from the religious leaders of the
predominantly Roman Catholic country. Poland's bishops were gathered for a meeting
this week, and they issued a statement that the registered partnership plans
"should not be supported by any Catholic" and would lead to an "inhuman
society."
The head of the Church in Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, told a radio audience
this week that, "[Homosexuality] depresses me a lot because it is against
human nature. I simply hate seeing men kiss each other. Maybe I'm old
fashioned."
But New Zealand's Presbyterian Church announced this week that its highest
court has greenlighted an open lesbian to train for the ministry. While there
are some gays and lesbians among that clergy, none of them were identified as
such until after they'd been ordained. Deborah Gordon, currently a lay
preacher, is overjoyed to have her chance to train -- it's been five years since
she submitted her application, and a church court ruling last year had gone
against her. This time, as she appealed that ruling, the church judicial
commission determined that the denomination has no express objection in principle to
ministerial training for gays and lesbians, and no specific regulations against
their ordination. Conservatives within the church immediately predicted that
the ruling will tear the denomination apart, while its acting head
anticipates that its future General Assemblies will take up the question.
And finally... was history's most famous sodomy trial staged to cover up a
top politician's own gay affair? That's the contention of Neil McKenna's "The
Secret Life of Oscar Wilde," a new biography of the great gay Irish 19th
century writer. Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sent to prison, an
experience which broke his health and spirit and contributed to his death. His
partner in the "crime" was Lord Alfred Douglas, son of the Marquis of
Queensberry. But McKenna asserts that Queensberry's older son Viscount Drumlanrig in
the last 2 years of his short life had a sexual relationship with Britain's
Prime Minster, the Earl of Rosebery. Rosebery made Drumlanrig his private
secretary. McKenna claims that Queensberry was ready to expose their liaison and
bring down Rosebery's Liberal Party Government -- and that the government's
prosecution of Wilde was the price paid for Queensberry's silence. McKenna told
the "London Times," "Oscar was sacrificed to save Rosebery and the Liberals."